Tag
by The Humbug
Summary: Mostly harmless, this is a KimShego pairing fan fiction set late in my ‘Who’s Writing This Crap?’ Kigoverse. Drama with humor seasoned to taste. Kasy Ann and Sheki Go Possible are the creations of NoDrogs, bless him. PG13 for combat violence and intimatio


Tag

Author: The Humbug

Disclaimer: "Kim Possible" and all characters within © The Walt Disney Company and its related entities. Kim Possible created by Mark McCorkle & Bob Schooley. All rights reserved. No profit is being collected from the fiction contained within. You can blame the rest of this on me.

Rating: PG-13 for combat violence and intimations of a physical relationship and intimate contact between consenting adult females. This should also cover a little harsh language now and then. If this will offend you, please read something else, and then seek professional help.

Summary: Mostly harmless, this is a Kim/Shego pairing fan fiction set late in my 'Who's Writing This Crap?' Kigo-verse. Drama with humor seasoned to taste. Kasy Ann and Sheki Go Possible are the creations of NoDrogs, bless him.

Tag

"Concentrate…"

"I am, Momma." The young girl was wearing a lightweight jumpsuit, its coloration similar to the green and black uniform worn by the older woman.

"I'm going to let it out now, Ok?" Shego eyed the raven-haired girl, one of her twin daughters. The youngster looked more than a little frightened. "Are you ready?"

The child swallowed hard before she could answer.

"Yes, Momma." Sheki breathed like her mothers taught her to before a battle; it calmed her fears and brought oxygen into her lungs for greater strength and endurance.

"Remember, it's just a game, just like…"

"Momma!"

"Ok, Ok!"

Shego moved away from the door of the packing crate and pulled the door open; as soon as the daylight struck the eyes of the occupant inside the crate, it moved. The thing was shaped like a female but had a body of blued metal and was wearing a black body stocking. The long blond hair was a sharp contrast against the glowing eyes of the automaton as it stepped out of the crate and looked around, charging forward immediately once it spotted the young girl standing in the middle of the yard.

Sheki was prepared just like she'd been trained; she remained stock still until the thing was about to reach her before she feinted to the side. She ignited a plasma field around her left hand and slapped the metallic surface of the thing's back.

"You're it!"

There was an ozone tang in the air from the contact and the metal figure whipped around. Sheki was already moving, running across the yard with the metallic thing close behind her. The automaton leaped into the air and, anticipating the girl's next move, angled its leap to the side. The thing landed directly in front of Sheki as the girl turned in the anticipated direction. Sheki attempted to backpedal but the thing tagged her on the shoulder.

"You. Are. It."

It was already moving away before the young girl could react. With a determined glare on her face, Sheki took off in pursuit. Back on the porch, her twin sister Kasy quietly opened the back door and moved to sit beside their Momma; the older woman pantomimed every strike and action taken by her other child and the two watched as the opponents traded hits while one chased the other around the yard.

"How's she doing, Momma?" Kasy kept her voice down so as not to distract her sister, who already had her work cut out for her because of the speed and dexterity of her metallic foe. Shego put her arm around the little redhead, who was also wearing a similar green and black jumpsuit, though this one had some scuffmarks and tears in it.

"She's doing great..." The former villain winced as Sheki tangled her feet while attempting to dodge a tag; the robot touched her before the girl could right herself and the contest continued. "Matching accuracy with speed is always difficult, but she's getting the hang of it."

"Better than me?"

"Do you want me to tell your Mommy that you asked that question?"

"No, Ma'am."

"Good, then shush." Shego smirked and held her daughter tighter. Just a short while ago when Kasy had been the one out there in the backyard, Sheki had ventured that she probably wouldn't be able to do as good a job as her red haired twin. The girls needed to build confidence as well a muscle, and while Shego didn't what them to get cocky, a little pep talk from Mommy might be in order. After several more minutes, Sheki was starting to tucker out and Shego stood up and walked out into the yard.

"BEBE, pause! Cancel current protocols."

The blue creature stopped and adopted a 'parade rest' stance. Sheki had made the last tag and had been evading the machine when it stopped; she let herself drop to the ground, panting. Kasy was close behind the tall woman and she moved off to help her sister while Shego examined the BEBE.

"Will she live?" Shego called back over her shoulder without turning.

"I can't feel my legs!"

"We need a soda over here, STAT!"

"Honk!"

"And one hard-boiled egg!" The giggling behind her made Shego grin but she wiped it from her face before she turned around. Whist in 'training mode' she always maintained a strict discipline to never joke around with her daughters. There was always time for fun but training would result in life or death one day. She did give the metal figure a quick pat on its cold hard shell before moving to inspect her girls.

"How many hits, Momma?" Kasy had helped Sheki to her feet, still catching her breath but flexing in the way that she'd been taught so that her muscles wouldn't cramp.

"Never you mind. Let's grab some slab and debrief." They ran to the deck as Shego lifted the BEBE over her shoulder and its body went as limp as a wet noodle; she carried it over to the back of the house and gently laid it down on it's back. Sheki was wiping her face with a towel and the girls waited impatiently for their Momma.

"Where did you get that thing, again?" They shifted to give the woman room to join them. Other than the age difference and Kasy's red hair, they each had the same pale green tilt to their skin.

"From 'GJ'; it's one of Drakken's oldest models and it was crated away in a storage closet." She regarded the abused robot. The artificial blond hair was mussed from its 'pursue and evade' protocols and the black body stocking was burned and shredded in several places, dark carbon scoring clearly visible on the blue metal from where Sheki had tagged it. "It's hardly a danger now."

"But it's so fast!"

"And agile!"

"You're not kidding… it and the other BEBEs were the second most dangerous foes to battle with your Mommy in hand to hand combat." The girls were impressed because the most deadly foe was sitting beside them now. "Most of the special features like extending limbs and super speed have been deactivated, and since it's only a single unit there's no 'hive mind' to worry about."

"So… who did better?" The girls looked pensive. Shego shook her head at them.

"This was not a competition between the two of you, it was combat training. Yes, I did count the hits and no, I'm not comparing them for you and no, neither of you 'did better' than the other." She reached out and ruffled their hair, smiling at them. "You are both doing very well and if we keep this up you'll be ready for something more intense in no time." For the next several minutes their Momma debriefed the girls on their performances, both in general as well as specific areas that either needed attention or had shown special achievement.

Kasy gave her sister a glance as advance warning, and then she asked a question that had bothered the girls all morning.

"Mommy's mad, isn't she?"

Shego had wondered when this might come up. Barring missions or other unexpected occurrences, Kim never missed a workout session with the children.

"No! Well… maybe a little. But not at you!" Shego looked to them both. "You know that Mommy and I support your training one hundred percent, right? Well, we discussed using the BEBE and we each had different feelings about it. She felt that it might be too dangerous, and I respect that." She looked at the metal figure again and prayed that there would be no serious repercussions as a result of this day.

"But she didn't even come out to watch us!"

"Mommy always watches us!"

"Girls, I swear to you that she's not mad at you. She's a little peeved at me, but that's business as usual, right?" They avoided her gaze and nodded, obviously unhappy.

"Can we do this again?" Both girls looked hopeful.

"Yeah, can we use the BEBE again?"

"Sorry girls, but I don't think so. This is only on loan from 'GJ' an they don't want to risk the technology being stolen or copied, even if it is out of date. And besides, I doubt that Mommy would be happy about me doing this twice." The girls seemed to understand that and didn't feel too disappointed.

"The two of you handled yourselves well. Were you afraid of it at all?"

"No way!"

"Huh, uh!"

"Girls…"

"Ok, a little."

"Yeah, it's creepy." They all stood, the tall woman lifting the limp blue figure and rested it across her shoulder again, with the little girls holding the back door open for her.

"It's Ok to feel fear; it's a warning that we really need to be paying attention to the sitch at hand. Just never let it get the better of you and make you hesitate." She started up the steps, still carrying the BEBE. "You can have one soda each and will you please set out some lunch food I wake your Mommy up from her nap and prove to her that I really am going to disassemble this thing?"

"Yes, Momma."

"Please and thank you." Shego was already halfway up the stairs but clearly heard the twins giggling behind her. She cursed herself for having picked up Kimmie's stupid catch phrases.

Lugging the robot down the hall and to the master bedroom, Shego gently set the metallic figure on the bed and stripped off her green and black mission uniform. Pulling an 'I'm With Sexy!' T-shirt over her head, she walked into the bathroom just long enough to wipe her face off with a damp cloth and returned to the bed with its metal occupant, puzzled as to why it was still laying there. She lay down on the comforter and gently tapped the metal forehead with a black fingernail.

"How long can you stay fresh in that can?"

"Just get me out of this damn thing."

The figure remained motionless as Shego leaned over it and used a plasma-charged finger to burn through the tattered body stocking. When that was removed she loosened the interlocking segments of the BEBE armor and lift the pectoral half away from the dorsal half, exposing sections of pink skin wrapped with strategically placed bandages to prevent chaffing, otherwise the body beneath the armor was nude. The final piece to be removed was the faceplate, and Shego lifted it away with the utmost care.

The exposed face was ruddy from exertion and damp with sweat, strands of loose red hair falling down and plastered against soft skin. There was also evidence of moisture from another source.

"Pumpkin, have you been crying?"

Kim did not answer; she rolled out of the remaining segments of armor and climbed up from the bed. Shego watched as her angel stormed into the bathroom and pulled the door closed behind her. She frowned and walked out of the bedroom and over to the landing.

"Girls, your Mommy and I will be up here for a few minutes, Ok?"

"Kay, Momma!" Having been deep in a discussion of how their own personal Team Possible uniforms should look when they eventually joined their parents on missions, this brought the twins back to the here and now. Kasy finished laying out the plates and turned to her sister. "I bet they're fighting."

"Probably about us and the BEBE."

"Momma said that Mommy wasn't mad at us, right?"

"Well, yeah…" Each girl wished in her heart that they could feel more confident that this was true. Upstairs, Shego waited for Kim to take a quick shower. When the slender woman left the bathroom her red hair, kept much shorter these days than when she was younger, was a frizzy mess after having been towel dried.

"Kimmie…" Still seated on the bed, Shego turned to face her mate.

"Not right now, please." Kim walked right by her towards the closet.

"Princess…" Standing, the taller woman joined her.

"I said, not right now, please."

"Pumpkin…" Shego hardly spoke the word when she leaned away from the angry glare that whirled around to confront her.

"You're really pushing all the buttons, aren't you?" Kim's anger flared in Shego's face. "I really do NOT want to hear from you right now!"

"Kim, did you think it was that bad of an idea? Did you really? Because I can tell you that even if this wasn't one of my best ideas, it was a damn good one!" The pale green woman began to count off on her long fingers. "They got a great workout, they had fun, it built their confidence and it was a wonderful display of how well their training is progressing!"

"I… yes, I suppose that it was… but do you have any idea how much it hurt to see…to be the…"

"What, Kimmie? Tell me why you're so angry!"

"Did you ever stop to think that maybe I'd like to train with them in some other capacity than the crash test dummy? That even sitting on the sidelines would be preferable to being the enemy?" Kim wiped at her eyes and made to turn away. "That while they were running from me, all I could see was… was…"

"'All you could see was'… what? Our girls being safe because they were never in the least bit of danger? Getting a first rate workout from someone who only cares for and loves them dearly? From someone who is the best?" Shego sighed in exasperation. "Is that what you saw?"

"… yeah." There was more but Kim couldn't say it.

"If you'd tried to perform this workout with them as yourself, they'd never have taken it as seriously. Sure, they're great girls but you're their Mommy; they know that their Mommy would never hurt them. As 'the BEBE' there was this mysterious factor of risk that kept them on their toes, took away their edge and made them work all the much harder."

There was no way that Kim could present an argument against these points, because there was no argument. The one reason why she had been smoldering with anger was why she now burned with shame. She marshaled her feelings and wrangled them back under her control with some good sense.

"You're right, of course. Maybe I… maybe I would have just liked to have been able to cheer them on a little." That sounded good, that's how she would end it. "That's all."

"Judas Priest…" Shego walked around the smaller woman and reached into the dresser to snag some clothes. "Kimmie, you're their mother, you're always with them and they know how proud you are of their accomplishments. But right now they're downstairs all worried about you being mad at them."

"But I'm not!"

"I know that but perception is reality, or don't you recall ever saying that to me before?" She threw a pair of running shorts and a T-shirt that said 'I'm With Evil!' at her wife. "If you were listening to us back down on the deck you heard me say that there would be no more practice sessions with the BEBE, right?"

"Yes."

"And I meant that." She sat down at the vanity table. "I knew that you'd be uncomfortable and hadn't planned on asking you to do that more than once. This was a one-time experience where we all learned a little something." Shego crossed her arms over her chest and cocked an eyebrow. "So how about we get down there and eat some lunch before they really start to worry, Ok?"

Kim was quiet, but looked as if she wanted to speak; Shego gave her all the time in the world. It only took a few seconds.

"I don't mean to be a stick in the mud, I really don't." Kim moved close but held herself back until invited. She was keeping her eyes on the carpeted floor.

"I know, Princess, it's Ok." Shego held an arm out in invitation, which was accepted when Kim joined her at the vanity. She embraced the lithe form. "That might not have been one of my best ideas, but you have to admit that it worked."

"Yeah, I know… I just don't feel comfortable…"

"You don't like being pitted against your own children, I know. That's why we made it a game of tag and not some sort of combat exercise. But look…" Shego used her long green fingers to again count off the positive outcomes. "They got a great workout and an excellent session of 'evade and pursue', they also gained the experience of using their plasma in simulated combat against an inhuman opponent… nothing personal." Shego leaned in to kiss her wife behind the ear, smelling the body wash that her Princess favored. "They were also in no danger whatsoever because you were their opponent, but they had no way to know that so they didn't hold back and that's the biggest thing that worry's me right now; their confidence needs building and I'm not sure how else to do that without making things too easy."

Kim had yet to make eye contact; she nodded at what she was hearing but still had something on her mind that was bothering her.

"I didn't, did I?"

"Didn't what?"

"Make things too easy?"

"Hell, no! You were fantastic!" Shego kissed her again, risking a little tickle in a spot that she knew Kim to be especially sensitive; this earned her a smile and a shiver but nothing more. "I was worried that you might not be convincing enough, but after the session with Kasy earlier I knew that you'd be fine, and so were they."

"They did do very well, didn't they?"

"They're amazing! My brothers and I never really had any combat training until after we gained our powers, and only the twins were as young as the girls are now. You didn't really begin to hone your speed and agility until you became a cheerleader, and you were a year or more older than they are now when you started."

"They'll be far better than we ever were, won't they?"

"They'll run rings around us! They'll…" Shego stopped when she felt her mate sag a little in her arms. She examined Kim's mouth, drawn into a hard line and slightly down-turned at the sides, and her head as it lowered a little from her shoulders.

"Is that what's bothering you?" It wasn't, really, but that was as good an explanation as any. Kim nodded once.

"I don't begrudge them anything." Kim sighed. "Not one single thing, but seeing them get better and better makes me feel older and slower and more stupid." Her brows furrowed. "I feel horrible and ashamed just thinking it."

Crap. Shego felt as if she should have seen it coming.

"I… sometimes I feel that I'm finished, that I'm used up and have nothing left to offer." She raised her head to face her spouse, eyes dry but distraught. "Like my best days are behind me and I should just fade away."

"Princess, how many missions did Team Possible have last year?"

"Mm… thirty-seven."

"Right; and how many were successful?"

"Only thirty-five." How her angel could manage to look so crestfallen at such a high success rate, Shego could not fathom.

"I can see that you're forgetting that a broken foot and appendicitis account for the two unsuccessful ones, yes?" Kim didn't answer. "How many of your solo missions were successful?"

"…"

"Princess…"

"All of them."

"Kim, you're only thirty years old and if anything you're getting better, not worse. You always pass the 'GJ' re-certification exams with one hundred percent accuracy and it's your Independent Operative stipend check, not mine, that accounts for the majority of the income for our home. You know that I've not touched the girls safety fund in years, right?"

Kim's breathing had steadily been getting deeper and her chin was slightly higher as she nodded in acknowledgement of Shego's question. What they now referred to as the 'girls safety fund' was the still-impressive remnants of any ill-gotten gains that Shego had squirreled away when still a thief. The younger hero had only agreed to let it remain in their possession if it could be held in trust should anything happen to them that would leave the girls orphaned.

"And if nothing else, ask yourself this… would the mighty Shego hang with a washed out loser that was a ready candidate for an ice floe?"

"No…" Kim smirked and raised her head all the way to initiate a kiss of her own. "Thanks."

"Whatever. Now, let's get you dressed." The taller woman stood and lifted the petite redhead into the air, swinging her up and onto her shoulder once again, just as she had when Kim had been masquerading as a BEBE. Kim was actually laughing as her larger mate began to dress her as if she were too young to dress herself.

"Oh, Kimmie, promise me something…" Shego paused to look her straight in the eyes. "When you go downstairs, keep in mind that the girls probably think that you're mad about them practicing with BEBE. Please, don't rain on their parade."

"I won't, and I never would. I'm as proud of them as you are. I'll just tell them that I was tired or something" Kim kissed her again. "Thanks for sticking up for my opinion out on the porch. I really do want the girls to know how much I support them. So really, thank you."

"No big … Kimmie wipe that grin off your face."

"Sorry."

"Nothing to be sorry for, Princess." Shego leant over to kiss the top of Kim's head.

"They are great, aren't they?"

"They're the best." Now Kim looked up to make eye contact; there was a mischievous gleam in those emerald orbs.

"Hey, you just said that I was the best!"

"I actually meant to say that you were the third best." Shego pursed her black glossed lips and furrowed her brow as if in deep consideration. "Kasy and Sheki tie for first, then of course there's me, but you… wow, there you are, right there." The smirk was just like old times. "Third best. That's what I meant to say."

Kim knew that she would be fine until the feeling passed; it always did.

"Should we go down, now?"

"Well, you already took a shower and the girls probably have lunch waiting…"

"I meant go down and eat lunch!" Her face blushed crimson at her spouse's leer. The older woman grinned and pulled the slender redhead to her and they ambled to the stairs arm in arm. Kim knew that she definitely felt better because it must have been showing in her expression and stance; the girls noticed right away that there was nothing to be worried about and they quickly ran to her.

"Mommy, we fought a BEBE!" Kasy was bouncing on her heels. "Well, we played tag with one, anyway!"

"Yeah, and we won!" Sheki had come down from her adrenalin high but was just as happy. Kim embraced them both and gave each of them a huge kiss.

"My little heroes!" Shego stood back and watched as her Princess held their daughters tight and seemed to gain strength from their limitless energy. The girls sat just a little closer to their Mommy during lunch and were all too eager to clean up afterwards.

88888888

It was two days later and Kasy was closest to the Kimmunicator when it chimed. She grabbed the beeping device, handing it to her Mother.

"Thank you, sweetheart." She kissed the girl on the cheek; they might have been twins themselves if not for a few inches of height in Kim's favor and the greenish tint to the teenager's skin.

"You're welcome!"

"Don't run off, shorty!" Shego's voice called out. "You may think you're all that, but you're not!"

"I'm coming right back, Momma!" Kasy signed and returned to the living room while Kim giggled and thumbed the activator switch. The face was familiar and friendly, but it wasn't her old friend Wade.

"Kim here; what's the sitch?"

"A good morning to you, Mrs. Possible. Sorry to disturb, but a person or persons unknown have apparently found a cache of equipment at one of Dr. Drakken's old lairs. They've activated something that is registering on our scanners." The young man at the other end of the signal was a lower grade operative for Global Justice named Dan or Stan or something like that and he'd called the house before with mission alerts; now that Agent Wade Load was a computer and network specialist for 'GJ', her friend was no longer her primary contact for missions.

"A weapon?" Had Dan or Stan just called her 'Mrs. Possible'? Good Lord, I've finally turned into my mother!

"Unknown, but unlikely… the energy signature that tipped us off doesn't match any of Drakken's weapons. It still could be anything and probably nothing nice, so watch yourselves just in case." Without being asked or telling her that he was doing so, the location was downloaded to her Kimmunicator; it was a few States away and would require fast transportation, which had apparently been pre-arranged. "We've dispatched a transport, so please be careful and report back as soon as you can."

"Got it! Kim out." She ran to the kitchen and frowned at her spouse, still hanging over the chessboard. "Shego, come on! We've got a mission! Sheki, get down off of your Momma!"

"She won't let me!" That much was true, and the girl had a much better vantage point of the game from there. Shego and Kasy had been playing a game of chess, with the older woman teaching the girls in the finer points of strategy and patience. She was also wearing her daughter Sheki over her shoulder like a shawl.

Having become a parent who wanted her children very close to her, Shego was not above grabbing one of the girls away from an activity and physically hauling them around with her. As a young mother, Kim often had to be pried away from her babies, fawning and cooing over them just a little too much. As they all got a little older, the sitch had reversed; Shego had to be in almost constant contact or proximity to one or both of their daughters unless the parents were having a private moment or were away on a mission. After a mission, especially a distant or long one, nothing could pull Shego away from the girls. Kasy and Sheki were alternately amused or embarrassed by this, but Kim knew that they seemed to sense their Momma's need for reassurance that her girls were doing fine.

But Kim also foresaw that they might not be so amused the first time that some boy came calling and it was Shego who answered the door. She'd have to have a talk with Shego about the eventuality of boys.

"Coming, Princess…" Shego dropped her hand over her rook and then withdrew it, hovering over her knight before lowering her hand completely and sighing in frustration. "I'll be right there."

"Momma, the game will still be here when you get back."

"Yeah, and Kasy will still be tromping you, Momma."

"Big, green talking head lice…" Sheki giggled as she was lovingly tossed onto the nearby couch.

"Sheki Go Possible, get your bubble butt over there and take out that garbage!" Kim suppressed a laugh.

"Yes, Mommy."

"Silence, Team Possible… the forces of evil have you… at… our mercy…" Shego was again thoroughly absorbed in the board.

"Now, baby! They're on their way!" There was absolutely no response this time. Kim squared her shoulders. "Ok, screw it. I don't want to go anyway." Three pairs of wide emerald eyes and three shocked faces with mouths agape turned in her direction. With her hands on her hips, Kim gave the epitome of a Shego smirk.

"Gotcha."

"Ok, Ok! I'm right behind you, Kimmie!" She huffed in frustration and pointed first at Sheki and then at Kasy. "You need to watch her and make sure she doesn't cheat."

"Shego! Our baby doesn't cheat!"

"Hey, Sis, I'll take the garbage for you if you look the other way for a few minutes."

"Kasy Ann Possible! You are NOT helping!" Kim grinned in spite of herself as she dragged Shego towards the steps. They raced up to their bedroom and hurried into their mission clothes, Kim with the dual task of fighting Shego off the moment she started to remove her civilian clothes. The pale green woman didn't begin to dress in earnest until Kim flipped her over and threw her onto the bed.

"Promises, promises…" Shego stripped and pulled on a uniform without ever taking her eyes of Kim; after working and living for years in conditions that did not include a stable power source and therefore working lights, the thief didn't need to see what she was doing to get dressed. She was mesmerized as the younger woman donned her cargo pants and full-length black Kevlar top. "I miss the belly shirts."

"Sorry, baby, but I don't feel that it's appropriate anymore."

"You still have them, right?"

"Yes…" Kim knew what she was being asked. "I can wear one later, if you'd like."

"Please and… damn it!" Kim was already giggling at her mate. Seeing the smile in Kim's eyes reminded of the younger woman's feeling the other day. "How are you feeling, Pumpkin? Are you Ok?"

"I'm fine. And by that I do mean 'better'. Thanks for listening to an old fart gripe about her forgotten glory days." After a couple of days the dark feeling had mostly passed so Kim wasn't really lying, even if life with Shego had taught her how to lie a little better.

"That's good. And cut out that 'old fart' bilge. You're a sexy, young fart if I ever smelled one."

"Ewww!" Kim let Shego chase her down the stairs. They noticed a mechanized hum in the air and found their daughters standing at the open front doorway watching a 'GJ' hover sled, one of the larger troop transport models, gently maneuver itself above the lawn. Kim joined the twins and waved out to the Agent that was lowering a ladder to the grass, not having enough room or time to properly land the craft. The agent waved back and Kim turned to her girls.

"Remember, stay home and don't worry. If you need anything…"

"We'll call Grandma and Grandpa, yes ma'am." They were prevented from saying more when Shego grappled with them from behind, effectively cutting off further communications. Kim smiled as the girls broke free and wiped slobber from their faces, then the older redhead gave each child a tender kiss on the nose as she helped to straighten their hair. Shego watched this with a smile of her own while she made one final inspection of her own mission uniform and gave some parental advice of her own.

"If we're gone overnight, no parties and no boys!"

"Momma!"

"Boys are gross!"

"Ewww!"

"Good girls…" Shego reached out and ruined Kim's repair work on the twin's hair and ran out to meet the hover sled. Kim signed and scheduled her discussion about boys to a much earlier date on her mental calendar. She joined her mate and they waived back to the house one final time before the sled rose and eventually disappeared beyond a distant row of houses. The girls returned to their tasks and chores and hobbies, each confident that all was well and normal in the world. They had completely forgotten about how badly their Mommy had been feeling the other day, at least in that she was obviously feeling better now.

88888888

The telephone rang that evening after the girls had washed the dinner dishes and were finishing their homework on the dining room table.

"Hello, Possible residence…" Sheki was the closest to the phone and she had answered casually; the girls were used to their folks being gone for longer periods of time and neither had really been anticipating news of their mothers until their expected return.

"Sheki? Hi, it's… Momma!"

"Hey, Momma!" From across the room Kasy looked up with interest as her sister spoke into the phone. "Did the mission go Ok?"

"Well…"

"Give me the damn phone!"

The second voice was not as clear or distinct as her Momma's voice, but Sheki's eyes flew open at the realization of two things; the other voice in the background was Mommy's voice and the frustrated anger she heard in it were as clear as day. The young girl with the long black hair urgently pointed towards the extension in the hallway and motioned for her sister to silently pick up that line; confused, her red haired twin complied.

"Momma?" Sheki spoke back into the phone. "Momma, is everything Ok?"

"Sure! Sure, everything's Ok, baby!"

"I said, give me the damn phone!"

"Not like that, no way! You just back off and sit down until you can control yourself!"

"But I want to talk, too! They're my girls… give me the fu…" The rest of the sentence was muffled and line remained open. Kasy looked back at her sister, stunned. They had never… NEVER heard their Mommy talk like that. Their mothers argued and fought, even talked 'trash' as they called it when sparing, but they had never heard her use such language… EVER. The twins felt cold all over and Kasy dared to speak.

"… is mommy there…?"

"Hey! Kasy!" It was still their Momma's voice. "Well, yes, she's here, sweetheart."

"Is she Ok?"

"Sure! She's fine… We're both fine. Um, look, girls… something's come up and we won't be home right away. We'll be back sometime very early in the morning, probably before you get up for school."

"… ok…"

"So you go on to bed at the normal time and we'll, um, see you tomorrow, Ok, sweethearts?"

"… yes, ma'am…"

"… ok, momma…"

"Ok? Ok, good… good. Ok, see you both tomorrow, then!"

"… ok…" The line had already gone dead.

Sheki waited for her sister to return to the dining room but the redhead did not. Looking for her, she discovered Kasy sitting on the sofa with her knees drawn up to her chin and her arms wrapped around her legs, looking as she were about to cry. Sheki joined her.

"So… what do you think's wrong?"

"I think Mommy's still mad. Remember the other day?"

"Uh, huh."

"I think that Mommy's still mad and that it's because of the BEBE."

"No way! Momma said…"

"I know what Momma said." Kasy wiped at her eyes, sniffling a little. "But that was Mommy's voice yelling and… cursing. She never does that!"

"Yeah, I know." Sheki couldn't think of any better explanation. "So, finished your homework?"

"Yeah. You?"

"Almost. There was just a bonus question left and I'll get it in homeroom. Want to watch TV?"

"No."

"Me neither." The twins leaned against each other and went to bed as soon as the sun had fully set, hours before their normal bedtime, and hadn't even bothered to turn on any lights.

88888888

Sleep had come after only a little anxious worry and, when the alarm clock woke then for school, the girls hurried into their clothes so that they could see if their parents were home, if the older folks had returned in the early hours of dawn, neither of the twins had heard it. Pausing at the top of the stairs, they listened carefully for sign of any presence below, making sure to stay as quiet as possible so as not to give away their location; their efforts were soon rewarded, sort of.

"This blows…" That was Mommy, not as angry as yesterday evening when they'd heard her in the background but still obviously upset.

"Now, it won't be for long. You know that." Now they heard Momma's voice, sounding unusually patient. "They'll contact us as soon as everything is ready."

"I don't give a tin shit! It's not right and you know how I feel about stuff like this!"

"I know, baby, but things will be just like they were before, soon enough…"

Puzzled but heartened that their parents were finally home, the girls descended the steps and walked into the kitchen as calmly as they could. What they saw didn't exactly allay their anxiety and it certainly didn't help their confusion. On any other morning, their Mommy would be serving breakfast and wearing her running clothes from her morning jog, while Momma would be hunched over her morning coffee. This was not the case today.

"Hey, good morning!" The taller woman with the flowing black hair was scooping scrambled eggs out onto a set of plates; Shego was still in her green and black mission uniform, slightly modified by 'GJ' over the years, but with frilly pink apron over top of it. It was the same apron that their Mommy usually wore.

Their Mommy, on the other hand, was seated at the table with a mug in front of her and was watching the girls closely with her arms crossed over her chest, with her red hair disheveled and still in her own mission clothes. When the girls had first entered the room, all conversation between the adults had ceased and the smaller of the two had been wearing a scowl. That expression had softened considerably at the entrance of the twins, but the eyes were brooding and hooded.

"Kim?" The girls took their usual seats as their Momma poured them each some juice and then joined them at the table. "Kimmie, say good morning to your daughters."

Kim's eyes had never left her girls, but she did look away to glare at Shego briefly. Seeing Momma serving breakfast was strange enough but the way Mommy was acting was totally weird.

"Hey…" The arms loosened and Kim turned in her seat to better face the girls. "Have a good night?"

"… uh, huh…"

"Kasy Ann Possible, we don't grunt at the table." Shego pulled off her apron and bent down to kiss the little redhead on the nose. "So, did you girls have a good night?" She made sure that that Sheki had a napkin as she gave her other daughter a kiss of her own. "Well?"

"Yes, Ma'am."

"Good!" Shego's tone was relaxed enough but she wasn't making eye contact like she usually did. Their Momma always looked you right in the eyes, always telling her girls that it strengthened trust in your allies and weakened the resolve of your enemies. The green and black clad woman was also eating with a care and grace that they'd not seen her use before.

Kim hadn't moved, peering at the girls as if waiting for something. The sitch was definitely not right; their Mommy was never this sullen or quiet. She would normally be up and moving and all over the girls about their forthcoming day at school.

"Was…" Sheki balked as all eyes suddenly turned her way. It was a moment before she continued. "Was the mission successful?"

Shego didn't respond immediately, keeping her gaze focused down on her plate and only diverting her attention away from her breakfast long enough to take a long drink of juice. Kim cocked her eyebrows and gave her wife an expectant look, as if curious to see how she might answer that question.

"It was." Shego's tone was decisive, making Kim smirk and turn away again. "We got there in plenty of time to prevent anyone from hurting themselves or anyone else.

"So, was it a weapon?" Kasy spoke as she watched her Mommy reach out for her mug, stop to inspect her slender pink arm, and then ignore her coffee as she wrapped the arm back around her chest. The redheaded woman remained silent the whole time.

"No, it wasn't a weapon. It was something that… your Momma and I had encountered before but the thugs didn't know how to use it properly."

"Thugs?"

"Yeah, bunch of small time losers." Kim signed with disgust. The twins hadn't expected their Mommy to speak, especially considering how disgusted she looked and they certainly hadn't expected her to talk like that. "Some of Drakken's old henchmen, with maybe a few of Dementor's thrown in, I'm not sure. Guess they thought that they could make a name for themselves if they grabbed some of the Doc's old stuff." Kim smirked. "They sure thought wrong."

The redhead reached out for her coffee and finally decided to drink it this time. She took a loud sip and her scowl deepened.

"Crap…"

"Is it cold?" There was a snarkiness to Shego's tone that was almost up to her normal level. "Here, let me help with that." Shego extended her arm and slowly wrapped her fingers around the mug. Her hand started to glow with a green light that was usual for when she was emitting a very low level of plasma and within seconds the dark liquid began to steam slightly. The look on Shego's face was innocent enough but the look on Kim's face was that of unbridled fury. The pink skin was suffused with a crimson flush and her mouth was a hard line. The petite woman even seemed to be quivering in her seat as she stared at the mug, not even lifting her head to speak.

"I'll… I'll see you girls later. Have a good day at school." Kim got up and left the room, her hands balled into fists. The twins glanced at each other, their worry as deep as their confusion and discomfort. Shego seemed to be noticing none of it.

"So! What did you want to do after school today?"

"Um…"

"I thought that maybe the three of us could throw around a little plasma when you get home from school. You know, blow some things up!"

"Really?" Their Momma was very strict about plasma use in the house or on the property; she almost never allowed it except for very limited reasons or for combat training. It was Kim that always said they should be practicing their control and technique more, not Shego. "Do you mean it?"

"Sure!" Shego made very clear eye contact then, her smile broad and open. "When you get home from school we'll all drive out to somewhere private and we can have a ball!" The tall woman looked over to the clock on the mantle. "Oops, it's time for school. Finish up, finish up!"

Surprised and excited by the offer to practice with their plasma that afternoon had a soothing effect that made them forget a little of their anxiety; whatever was going on between their parents was just as awkweird as before but they were only thirteen and easily distracted by simple pleasures. Scarfing down what little remained of their meals, the girls grabbed their satchels from the hallway and were escorted through the front door by their Momma, who walked with them to the corner in anticipation of the school bus.

Other children were already there, as was another parent.

"Morning, Fran!" Shego grinned at the woman. Fran Miller nodded and muttered a reply, already knowing about her neighbors and their mysterious lifestyle but never having seen the taller, older woman outside of the house wearing a green and black uniform, or speaking to her, or smiling. The bus came for its morning load of children and Kasy and Sheki managed to wave back at their Momma as the vehicle drove away.

Shego turned and jaunted back to the house, closing the front door tightly behind her and listened. Somewhere in this house was her wife and she had to confess to a little extra energy this morning. The tall woman slowly pealed herself out of her mission uniform, luxuriating in the fact that there were no undergarments beneath the green and black Kevlar weave.

"Pumpkin?" There was no reply. "Princess?"

"Piss off." The tired and bitter voice came from upstairs.

"Ready or not, here I come!" The pale green woman ran through the house and up the stairs like a sprinter, using her powerful legs to propel herself as fast as she was able.

88888888

Other than a brief yearbook committee meeting in the library at 3:15 pm, the Possible twins were back on their way home from school, having hitched a ride with the mother of a classmate. The afternoon was warm and the girls spoke of classes and cheerleading and even the occasional boy as they walked from the corner of the block to the home where they lived.

"Do you think that Momma was serious about taking us out to use our plasma powers, Kas?"

"Well, doy! Momma never says stuff that she doesn't mean. I just wonder how Mommy will react!"

"Yeah, I know what you…" The raven-haired teen's voice trailed off and she stopped walking.

"Shek?" The red haired girl turned to her sister. "Sheki, what…?" She paused in her question and followed Sheki's stunned gaze towards their house. Specifically, upwards to the roof of their house where their Mommy was sitting and leaning back against the chimney and waving frantically down at them.

Kim was no longer wearing her mission clothes but she looked even more disheveled than she had that morning. Dressed in what looked like their Mommy's old cheerleading outfit and her motions urgent but not otherwise hysterical or desperate, Kim repeatedly placed her finger against her lips and gave her daughters the silent message to remain quiet, more specifically to not alert anyone of her presence on the roof. The girls watched this for several seconds before Sheki nodded mutely and Kasy gave a 'thumbs up'. Kim returned the gesture and looked up and down the street before hunkering back down against the chimney. Kasy began dragging her twin closer to the house.

"Um…"

Yeah, um… what was that about?"

"Mommy's hiding?"

"Doy! But from who?" They had barely reached the front door when it was yanked open from within and a tall form urgently looked out through the doorway, quickly scanning the avenue up and down before standing back and glancing down happily at the two girls.

"Hey, sweethearts! Welcome home!" Shego was dressed in her best black silk negligee, hurriedly wrapping her dark green silk robe around herself as she smiled down at the children. "Did you have a good day at school?"

"…"

"…"

"You haven't seen your Momma around anywhere, have you?"

"Um, we… we…" They had been strictly taught not to lie. Kasy decided to take the heat for this one later and spoke up for her sister.

"We didn't see her out walking around, no, Ma'am."

Shego clearly had no reason to doubt this and gave the street one last glance before moving aside to let her daughters into the house. While both of the adults were modest around their children, Shego seemed unusually careless with her appearance and manner while the girls placed their satchels against the hall tree and gingerly walked towards the stairs. The tall woman almost seemed to be lost within herself, sauntering and traipsing in ways that their Momma never… NEVER moved or acted.

The way in which the pale green woman was inspecting herself was similar to how someone would act when trying on a new suit of clothes, even though the twins had seen the nightclothes and robe many times before.

"You can each have one soda either before or with dinner, and…" The woman obviously remembered something and her face broke into a wide grin even as she started to speak. "Oh, that's right! We were going to go out and sling a little plasma this evening, weren't we?"

"Did you really mean that?" Sheki had hoped that the promise hadn't been idle, but it had seemed far too good to be true.

"Doy! Of course I did!" Their Momma clapped her hands together and actually bounced on her heels. "You two run upstairs and get into your own mission clothes and I'll change as well." She looked back and forth between their incredulous faces. "Ok?"

"Sure!"

"Thanks, Momma!" The teens shot up the stairs and ran to their room, leaving the door ajar as they pulled the homemade, Kasy-designed mission uniforms from the closet and changed out of their school clothes. They wasted no time and barely heard the window being opened behind them.

"Pst… girls!" They spun around to see their Mommy climbing in the window. "What gives?" Kim waited expectantly for a few seconds before seeing that the teens were too startled to reply. "Well, where is she?"

"Who?"

"Your… Momma. Where is your Momma?" The girls noticed that Kim's face was smudged with black glossy lipstick and that her hair was a righteous mess.

"Downstairs." Kasy pulled the form-fitting black tunic over her head while Sheki was tucking her long hair under her own cowl.

"Why are you wearing those?"

"Momma's going to take us out for plasma practice!"

"Yeah!"

"Oh, really?" The slender redhead seemed intrigued by that remark but her expression was more of anger than curiosity. "That should be a hoot."

"Then why don't you come with us?" The sudden voice startled them all, Kim seemingly more than the children. Shego was standing in the doorway, having just come upstairs to change into her own uniform. "We can get in a little sparing before dinner."

"And do you really think that this is a good idea… Shego?" The girls wondered why their Mommy had backed up against the far wall, her eyes wary and slightly panicked, as if judging how difficult it would be to leap back out through the window.

"Sure… Pumpkin." The smirk on the pale green face seemed normal enough. "Why shouldn't the girls get to use their powers more often, and you're always complaining that we never get to fight like we used to!" The older parent backed out of the room. "You girls finish changing while your… Mommy and I get ready."

"Huh, uh! Nothing doing!" Kim remained against the wall. "I'm not following you into that room. You go and get dressed and I'll stay with the girls."

"Chicken." Shego smirked and her emerald gaze was veiled as she continued down the hall.

The twins had no idea what to make of this exchange but they were slowly becoming very uncomfortable. The awkweirdness of the previous evening and from that morning was fresh in their minds and they were starting to recall their Mommy's behavior from the other day. Now that they were examining the details, neither parent was acting as they should, but nothing that the girls could think of would explain the sitch.

"Well, I guess that you'd better get dressed." Their Mommy had walked into the girls' bathroom and was washing her face and rinsing her hair. Sheki was fully dressed and walked closer to the bathroom door.

"You don't think we should do this?"

"You don't want us to practice?" Her sister had joined her. Grabbing a 'Disney Princess' towel, the former 'girl who could do anything' dried her face and hair before looking to her daughters.

"It's not that, it's just… " She seemed to reach an internal decision. "Look, your M… Momma's feeling a little off today. It's nothing serious…" She interrupted herself when she saw looks of worry blossom on the twins' faces. "She's just not herself."

"But if you don't really want us to…" Kasy had unconsciously drawn closer to her sister.

"Then we won't." Sheki welcomed the proximity.

"Girls! Come on!" Their Momma had apparently finished changing and was back downstairs calling out to them. "Let's go and blow stuff up!"

"Mommy?"

"It's Ok…" The slender red head walked over to her daughters and looked them over as if seeing them for the first time. At thirty years of age, the former cheerleader had gained a few inches in height but even her thirteen year old children were almost up to eye-level with her. The fair skin and soft features had become just a little narrower over the years but they were always quick with a smile; Kim's face had been a little too hard set since that morning and now her features softened while she faced her girls. "Really."

"Ok, Mommy, if you say so…" Kasy seemed reluctant to finish getting dressed. "Mommy, earlier, I… told Momma a lie."

"Oh?" The petite woman's reaction was measured. "What about?"

"She asked me if I'd seen you and I kind of said no…" Kasy was blushing with the characteristic bruised look that was caused by her pale green coloration. "I'm sorry."

"Kasy, trust me." Kim reached out and hugged both of her girls at once. "I think that we can let it go this time." They returned the embrace.

"PLAS-MA! PLAS-MA!" The sing-song chant from downstairs seemed almost giddy.

"Geez…" Kim smirked in a very uncharacteristic way. "Come on, let's not keep her waiting."

88888888

The Kimmunicator chirped with an incoming signal while they were in the car. It was Shego that immediately looked around for the device but it was Kim that pulled it from her pocket.

"Don't…" The taller woman was driving and from the backseat her daughters heard an almost pleading quality in the voice. "Please don't answer it."

"I've got to. You knew that they were going to call." The redhead palmed the small blue machine but let it continue to chirp away. Her voice was almost as patient as the girls were used to hearing, not like that morning at the kitchen table.

"I know, but…" The adults became silent in the front seat and Sheki leaned forward against her safety belt to watch the blinking lights of the Kimmunicator.

"Aren't you going to answer that?"

Shego continued to drive and kept her eyes on the road; Kim clutched the casing of the device until it creaked against her grip. After several more seconds the chirping stopped.

"Doesn't look like it, sweetheart." Kim looked out at the barren landscape of this deserted region of Middleton, her reflection unreadable to her daughters as they stared, incredulous, from the back seat. The redhead glanced down to see that a text message had been uploaded to the device but she already knew what it would say.

"Thanks." Shego turned the steering wheel around and around and brought the car to a stop, facing the direction in which they'd driven. There was no answer from the smaller woman, now dressed in her usual black Kevlar top and olive drab cargo pants, except that the top had a midriff-bearing cut to it that the girls were not used to seeing.

"This is it, girls! We're here!" The woman turned in her seat and pulled her hair out of the way to beam at her daughters. Now that the car had stopped, the passengers took a good look at the area.

"Here?" Kasy popped her belt.

"Yep!" Shego's enthusiasm was more evident.

"This is where we're going to practice?" Sheki was the first to open her door, appraising the long abandoned storefronts and vast, empty parking lot. "An old shopping mall?"

"Sure! This way we can cause all the ruckus we want and no one will know!"

"Great…" Kim was also out of the car but opted to take a seat on the hood of the vehicle. "This will end badly." She kept the Kimmunicator in her hand but did not open a channel to 'GJ'. She watched her girls as they performed the stretching exercises they had been taught by both parents, all the better to move or fight when staging a simulated mission. "Arch your back, Kasy. Good girl… Don't forget to loosen up your calves, either. You, too, Sheki, that's right…" The girls obeyed, limbering up even as their Momma was starting to ignite her plasma.

"So? Are you girls ready yet?" The tall woman was holding up her arm, letting the green plasma field roll and cascade around her fingers, constantly adjusting the intensity of the field and making it flicker. She seemed to be fascinated with her own ability and only when her children were ready did they join her.

"Ok, Momma!"

"What's the sitch?"

"Well…" the pale green woman smiled down into the twin faces that bore the same cast as her own. "I thought that you might want to run through a few of the standard drills that your Mommy and I set up for you, but then I'd like to try some target practice!"

"Really? That rocks!"

"Yeah, that hurricane rocks!"

"And then maybe the three of us can play a little 'plasma-powered dodge ball' to work up a hearty appetite for dinner?"

"What's for dinner?"

"Um… pizza?"

"YAY!"

The three green skinned females began to run around the huge parking lot, the low sun glinting off the few chrome highlights of Shego's uniform and utterly vanishing into the inky depths of the twins deep black outfits. If any of them heard the repeated chirping of the Kimmunicator in Kim's hand, they never reacted to it. The petite redhead remained seated on the hood of the car and only moved to reach down and deactivate the little annoyance, a full deactivation that was hardly ever performed, her intense look of disgust slowly easing into one of pleasure.

She watched as the physically larger woman scampered around the macadam like a playing child; her movements and her laughter mirroring that of the young teens. A look of sheer joy suffused the features that both adults knew had hardly ever known true joy until far too late in life. The play was mixed evenly with actual training, mock attacks being waged against real defense; the girls were becoming very strong for their size and could jump almost as far and leap almost as high as their folks. The pride on the pale green woman's face was obvious, so the redhead was content to let it continue uninterrupted for a while. And besides, she was just as proud in the girls' skills as was her wife.

When the girls had begun to tire of the drills, their Momma made good on her promise for target practice, calling a break so that she could assemble a few sundry items that were strewn across the cracked lot. A few metal frame shopping carts, plastic crates, bits of wooden pallets and the odd piece of cinderblock were arrayed in a heap beside her.

"Ok, Team Possible, here's the sitch…" The tall woman matched her daughters' grins with one of her own. "When each of you are ready, I'll throw a target OR targets out in front of you and it'll be your mission to blast it!" She grinned wider. "Ready?"

"READY!" The girls had spaced themselves apart for safety. Kim could see, even from her perch on the car's hood, that the girls were cupping their hands slightly so as to feel the short-lived plasma 'bubble' that could quickly be strengthened into a 'grenade'.

"Then here goes…" Shego lobbed a chunk of wood high and right. "Sheki!"

BAM… splinters were still raining down after the green flash had faded.

"Good, very quick on the draw!" A piece of concrete took flight. "Kasi!"

BAM… BAM… the piece was cleaved in two and then thrust away.

"Wow! Excellent control!" Several small bits of rock were gathers into a pair of green and black gloves. "Let's try for multiple targets, this time, shall we?"

"No big!" Kasy giggled.

"Yeah, so not the drama!" Sheki winked at her twin. Several yards away, an older redhead shook her head in wonder.

The former cheerleader leaned back and watched as an intense and thorough session of plasma training unfolded before her very eyes. Her emerald eyes were slightly glazed at how both teens were not only performing beautifully but also how they never even realized how their skills were being tested. She had never thought to incorporate these techniques in their training herself, and was equally stunned and impressed at the same time. Not every target was hit, and not every hit was clean, but with guidance and encouragement from the woman in green and black the girls were displaying a comfort with their own powers that the other parent hadn't previously seem before.

Maybe the day wasn't such a loss, after all.

88888888

"Hey!" It had been almost two hours since they'd started their training session and the sun was almost gone. "Hey, gang! It's time to pack this show up and get home!" The slender redhead was getting cold, something that she wasn't used to, and she knew that the girls would be getting hungry even if they didn't want the fun to end. No one had eaten yet and it was still a school night.

"She's right. Ok, Team Possible, let's pack it in!" The pale green woman straightened and stretched her own muscles, reveling at how they flexed and bunched beneath her skin.

"Mommy, did you see?" Kasy ran to her, pulling off her cowl. "Did you see the new move we came up with?"

"Did you?" Sheki was beside them, equally ecstatic. "Cool, huh?"

"Yes I did and it was brilliant. I can't wait to see it in action some day!" And she meant it; they girls had worked together to first create a plasma sphere, concentrated enough to be powerful but far too large and unwieldy to throw, but then boost it from behind with another plasma blast designed to launch the first sphere like a cannon ball. The attack carried a considerable punch! "Your… Momma and I are very proud of you!"

"Care to go a quick round, Cupcake?" Shego had finished brushing the debris off of her uniform from the girls' efforts and had glided up behind the three. "It's still light out."

"It's a school night and the girls are hungry. I'm getting chilled and they will too once they start to cool down." Kim kept her face set and her mouth hard. She continued to stare at her spouse but redirected her speech to the girls. "Great work, you two. Jump in the car and let's head home."

"Awww…"

"Ok, Mommy…" The disappointment was more obligatory for the girls than anything; their Mommy knew that she heard at least one stomach growling.

"You are such a buzzkiller, Princess." The waning light grew bright but green as twin flares of plasma engulfed the hands of the taller woman. "Come on, let's show the girls what it was like in the old days!"

"Yeah, that would be so cool!" The twins stood by the open rear door of the car in eager anticipation. "You never let us watch you fight!"

"And with good reason…" Kim would not be swayed. "It's not right to let you see that, even if it's not real." The older woman with the flowing black hair seemed oblivious to this fact, so her spouse repeated herself. "It's just not right."

A bright flash of light from overhead startled them all. It was repeated twice more as three lamp posts, tall remnants of the once bustling mall parking lot, flickered to life and illuminated an area several square yards in diameter. They were apparently still tied into the power grid in this disused section of town. The petite woman watched in frustration as her wife walked over to stand in the middle of the lighted area.

"The Mighty Shego stands ready to take all comers!" Her arms were raised and her hands flared with green death, her voice roaring with bravado. "Who thinks that they are strong enough to fight me?"

"Oh, for the love of Mike…" Turning to face her daughters, the woman handed them the Kimmunicator. "Hold this and stay by the car." Her gaze burned into them. "And do NOT get any closer than this, no matter what happens, capisce?"

"Ok, Mommy." Their anxious looks gave her pause.

"It's Ok, don't worry. I told you that your Momma wasn't herself, right?"

"Yes, Ma'am."

"Well, I think that I'm going to have to give her the fight she wants." She tousled their hair and walked towards the ersatz arena.

"Hel-lo, Kimmie!" The smirk was timeless. "I didn't think that you'd have the nerve."

"Let's just get this over with. I could do with some pizza, myself."

"Oh, there'll be pizza, alright!" The tall woman sprinted forward and leapt, flipping as she did so and bringing both hands down right where her slender opponent had been standing just a second before. Clawed gloves tore into asphalt that had already been weakened by the heat of her plasma fields. White teeth grinned through black glossed lips.

"Street pizza!" She stood and charged again.

"Son of a …!" The redhead had rolled at the last moment, feeling the familiar heat and hearing a crunch that would have been her bones if she'd not been fast enough. Lithe muscles and quick reflexes being utilized to the fullest, she ducked and dodged a flurry of attacks, each designed to cripple or main but all coming just within a hair's breadth of contact… and the former cheerleader had to keep herself constantly moving just to keep it that way.

"Not bad, Princess! I guess there is a benefit to not carrying too much extra weight!"

"Oh, you are so going to pay for that one!"

Back at the vehicle, the twins watched in awe, not realizing the degree to which the fight was authentic and not being staged or just an innocent 'sparing' between the two martial artists. They stood by the car and mimicked each blow and parry, each bob and weave and feint just as their parents made them out in the shadowed parking lot, with each girl seeing the outcome of their hours of training each week.

The children weren't the only ones receiving an education; the green and black clad woman was learning that size and strength weren't always better than agility and accuracy. Every strike, be it charged with plasma or not, missed by such a small margin that she was losing control of her emotions, making each attack a little wilder than the previous one. She was also getting tired, the weight of her frame unable to keep up with the fluid motions of her human target. That target wasn't immune to learning a lesson either; the redhead could not believe the psychological advantage that a larger opponent able to throw plasma grenades had over a non-powered, albeit athletic, body. Every time that she saw the larger form coming at her she fought against panic, and every plasma blast startled her with its heat and concussive force. Quick and dexterous she might be, but all it would take was one good hit… just one… and she would be dead.

It was time to call it a day.

"Ok, we've had our fun…" She kept her voice even as she dropped out of the path of a flying kick aimed right at her face. "Let's get out of here."

"Oh, you'd like that, wouldn't you, Kim Possible?" Eyes flashed as green as the energy around her hands. "You think you're all that, but you're NOT!" Shego draw back her hand and swung at her foe, making the smaller woman backpedal towards the closest lamppost.

"Look… " It was all that she could do to keep her voice steady in the face of such unbridled power and fury, the look in the eyes of her opponent bordering on madness. "We really need to stop and get home. The girls probably have schoolwork and they need to be fed!" The argument was completely lost on the rampaging woman as she continued to advance, with fists and claws trusting out and grasping or slicing through the air just shy of pink flesh.

"No!" A powerful arm drew back. "I will have my victory!" The smaller form had barely enough time to evade the strike as a plasma charged fist pulverized its way through the metal shaft of the post, blinding them both as the shredded wires sparked and the light above went out.

"Mommy!"

"Momma!"

The girls knew that something was very, very wrong. They disobeyed the order to remain by the car as the lamp fell, the long metal post canting and twisting as it collapsed, kicking outward from its ruined base and forcing the redhead to huddle against the concrete for safety. Staying well back from the falling post, the girls witnessed their Mommy hiding down behind the conical base of the shattered post while their Momma continued to punch into it, her plasma fields allowing her to crush more and more of the formed concrete into powder.

"Stop it!" The redhead's voice held more real fear than she wanted it to, but the reply she received was even more terrified. "Stop it right now!"

"I… I can't!" The tall form straightened and ceased her attack against the concrete base, but the plasma fields did not go out. "I can't shut it off!" The pale green woman held her hands out before her as if they had betrayed her, as if the energy fields were some horrible malady. There was pure terror in her eyes.

"Sh… Shego! Help me!"

"I'm coming, Princess!" The redhead crawled out from her hiding place and the thoroughly confused twins watched as the tall woman lurched about on stiff legs, desperate to shake off the green flames, while the petite woman ran around and jumped up onto her back, still keeping well clear of the flames herself.

"It won't shut off! I can't…!"

"Shhh… it's Ok, Pumpkin, it's Ok…" Kim's voice was soothing, even if she had been fighting for her life a few seconds ago. "Relax and slow your breathing."

"I can't…" Terror still ruled the face of the taller woman but her forced gasps were a little slower now. "I can't control it anymore!"

"Sure you can, you've done fine all day." The tone was calm and was slowly having the desired effect; the stiff lurching was almost stopped and within moments the green and black clad woman staggered and fell to her knees before settling down to sit on the cooling macadam. The slender redhead never left her place on Shego's back.

"Think of fishing line…"

"F-fishing line… Ok…!"

"You have the reel, so just reel it in…"

"Reeling it in…!"

"Or the strings of a marionette. Just pull the energy back in. You could feel it running out through your fingers, now just reel it back…" The serene look on the redhead's face was eventually matched by that of her wife and the panic that the larger woman felt slowly leeched away as the calm words and controlled breathing took hold.

"What's going on?" The twins dared to walk closer when the green flames eventually died away.

"Yeah, what's wrong with Momma?"

"I know that you're not standing here right now because I distinctly recall telling you to wait by the car!" The redhead wasn't really mad but there was entirely too much adrenalin coursing through her veins at the moment.

"But Momma's sick or something!"

"Girls… your… Mommy's right. You should have stayed at the car." Staring at her hands as if seeing them for the first time, it was the woman in the green and black uniform that answered. The slender redhead holding onto her back and shoulders was gently stroking the flowing black hair and maintained the steady breathing. "I'm better now, really."

"But what happened?"

"I… I owe you both an apology and an explanation. I'm hoping that it can wait 'til tomorrow because it's getting late and I know that you're hungry, but I hope that you won't be too upset if we… if…"

"How about we have pizza tomorrow night, Momma?"

"Yeah, and then we can all talk then."

"That'd be Ok with us."

"You two are the bestest little girls in the world." The pale green woman looked right at them and for a second it was as if someone else was behind those eyes. The redhead stirred and slowly withdrew the Kimmunicator from her pocket and held it out for the larger woman to see the display.

"They're ready for us, baby. They've been waiting for almost two hours."

"I know." The larger woman seemed to be mentally collecting herself. "Let's get the girls home first."

"Are you sure?" Kim unwrapped herself from her spouse and they helped each other to their feet. "We could always call in a transport, or we can have an Agent take them home…"

"No. I'm sure." She looked down at her family from a perspective that she knew that she would never have again. "I'm sure."

"Ok, but I'm driving!" The petite woman herded the other three back to the car and they had soon left the deserted parking lot behind them. The girls were just as perplexed as ever but there was something new in the equation; both of their parents were much more relaxed than they had been the entire day, each apparently at peace in a way that would remain a mystery, even if for just another day. Their Mommy actually turned on the radio to one of Momma's favorite stations and their Momma just sat quietly and kept looking at her face in the small mirror mounted in the sun visor.

"Baby, where are you going?" Kim had failed to make the turn in the direction of their community, instead taking the car down a street lined with fast food restaurants.

"The girls are probably starving and I know I am… I'm sure that you are, too, so I'm going to get us some perfectly horrible and unhealthy drive-thru crap."

"YAY!"

"Don't 'yay' me, Team Possible!" The redhead smirked. "It's dinner and then homework and then bath and then bed!"

"BOO!"

She even treated them all to extra fries that evening. The night ended smoothly if quietly with the four of them gathered around the table in the dining room. The girls brought out their homework and it became a group study effort while they ate and made sure that the children were well prepared for the following school day. Momma helped with the math and writing but still seemed subdued, more exhausted from the afternoon's activities than from anything on her mind. Mommy left them alone to clean up but kept a watchful eye on the tall woman, apparently satisfied with what she saw.

Once dinner and homework were completed, she hustled the twins off for a late bath. The teens received their usual hugs and kisses but the hug from Shego was especially tight. Kim stood back and waited until the pale green woman was finished, watching her stand and leave the room before the redhead turned and addressed the twins.

"Alright, you two, bath time. We'll be up to tuck you in when you're done."

"'Kay, Mommy!" Kim watched the girls scamper upstairs and then waited for her wife to return to the central location of the dining room; the former villain had left to make the house secure for the night.

"Aren't you going to wash up and change?" The redhead's inquiry evoked a puzzled look.

"Why? Aren't we going to drive to 'GJ' once the girls are in bed?"

"Naw… I sent a text message back while I was in the kitchen. I told them that we'd be in tomorrow morning after we got the girls off to school."

"But…"

"A few more hours won't hurt anything." The redhead sidled up to her wife. "I just thought that… maybe you'd want to take it for another test drive. You know…" the redhead smirked. "Under less stressful conditions."

"… please and thank you…" The larger woman was blushing, her entire face and neck becoming a dusky, bruised color.

88888888

Kasy and Sheki had been staring at their mothers for over thirty seconds in silence. Their mouths had been slack and their matching pairs of green eyes were wide. It was the afternoon again and the girls had been home from yet another day at school for about an hour, doing a few simple chores and starting that evening's homework. The night before had been peaceful and they had slept well, and after several assurances at breakfast that morning that everything would be back to normal by the time they came home, the girls felt better about the sitch… whatever it was… than they had the day before.

"Ok…" Sheki found her breath first. Their parent's explanation over some after-school snacks had been interesting.

"Let's get this straight." Kasy followed close behind. "All day yesterday and until we left for school this morning, you…" Kasy pointed to the redheaded Kim Possible. "… were in Momma's body."

"That's right, sweetheart." Kim sat cross-legged on her chair, still too embarrassed at her behavior to stop blushing; she was starting to worry that the rosy hue might become permanent. She sipped at her beverage to avoid looking at them.

"And Momma…" Sheki peered closely at the former villain. "Momma was in Mommy's body."

"Yep." Shego was sitting backwards at her chair, draped over the back and resting her chin on her crossed arms.

"Did it hurt?"

"Well, I'm certain that one of us is a little more sore today that the other…"

"Shego!"

"What I meant, Pumpkin, is that your body doesn't heal like mine and it was pushed to its limits yesterday."

"Oh. That's true."

"And then there was later…"

"Ghaa!"

"Uh… " Sheki glanced at Kasy and neither girl understood what was meant by that. "But are you sure that the 'mind-switching' thingy didn't leave you a few episodes short of sixty-five?"

"Yeah, how do we know that you're back to being, well, you?" Kasy was still peering at her Momma, prompting the pale green woman to cross her eyes and stick out her tongue at the girl. This elicited a giggle from both girls and, to Shego's relief, Kim herself. The older redhead set down her drink and looked at them evenly.

"When we arrived at the old lair and broke up the gang of scavengers, they hadn't yet figured out what they'd found or even how to use it properly. Several of their own minds got switched around before we got there and had the same thing happen to us. Needless to say that everyone was more than a little disoriented during the fight and when the machine was accidentally damaged, well…"

"Damaged?"

"It was just the power source, baby, nothing that 'GJ' couldn't repair." Shego reached out and patted Kasy on the hand. "They needed a few hours and there wasn't any reason for us to hang around there, so we came home."

"It might have been better…" They all looked to Kim, who turned away slightly before continuing. "Maybe we shouldn't have come home. It was wrong to expose you two to that sitch since I wasn't… behaving myself better."

"It's Ok, Mommy."

"Yeah, it was awkweird because we knew something wasn't right."

"But we had fun last night, too! The practice was great!"

"So why didn't you tell us?"

"Well…" Kim looked to Shego, who shrugged. "We thought that it might freak you out a little." The girls grinned back at her.

"Richard, how about 'The Kids Were Freaked Out Anyway'?"

"Survey says… BING BING BING!"

Shego roared with laughter and fell off her chair, with Kim staring at the girls in shock.

"Oh, no, you didn't!" The twins were up and moving before Kim could make it around the table, but she was able to make up the distance once they reached the backyard. "You think you're all that, Team Possible… blah, blah, blah!" Shego, still laughing, walked into the kitchen and removed two of the largest, most righteous pizzas from the oven that the world had ever seen. Outside there were two children being tortured by tickling so what could be wrong?

88888888

"What am I going to do with you?" The children had been in bed for an hour and Shego had just brought two cups of hot chocolate into the family room.

"Huh? What do you mean?" They were both dressed for bed but 'the movie' was on and Johnny had just cracked his skull against a headstone. Kim had on her pajamas and robe and had her feet tucked up under her lest a zombie grab them from beneath the sofa.

"You lied to me the other day."

"What? I did not!"

"I asked you if you were 'Ok' and you said yes. You proved how untrue that was yesterday." Shego sat down beside her younger spouse and twirled a strand of red hair around her green finger. "So tell me what's wrong."

"Nothing's wrong." Kim smiled, knowing that she wasn't going to be able to put up much of a fight. As if to make the point, Shego leaned close and whispered into the perfect ear.

"I have ways of making you talk." She straightened and became serious. "So talk."

"You know…" Kim sighed deeply. "You know how I was upset the other day during the game of tag against the BEBE, right?"

"Yes."

"And I told you that I was angry at being the 'enemy', and that I didn't like not being able to 'be there' and that I was feeling 'old and used up'?

"Yes."

"None of that was quite true, either."

"Really?"

"Really. It was all… bullshit."

"Uh, huh. Hang on a sec'." Shego reached out and snagged the telephone from the end table behind her.

"What? Who are…?"

"Hold on, hold on…" Shego made a show of dialing a number and then listening to the ringing through the open connection. "Hey, Doc? Hey, it's Shego! Yeah, long time and all that. Listen, hope I didn't wake you but I've finally done it." Kim huffed and rolled her eyes; Shego covered the receiver and shushed her before returning to her 'call'. "Yep, that's right… Operation 'Live With KP Until She's Hopelessly Corrupted' is a howling success! I'm proud to say that she's lying like a rug! She's as crooked as a dog's hind leg! She's even cursing!"

"Ok, enough! That was funny for, like, never!" Kim hid her grin as best she was able. Her wife returned the phone to its cradle.

"Then you tell me exactly what was on your mind." Shego had the patience of Job at the worst possible times.

"When we were out in the yard, with me as the BEBE and you coaching the girls, I was upset because…"

"Yes?"

"Geez, this is harder than I thought."

"Is it the plasma thing again? Please don't tell me it's the plasma thing again, because the girls felt terrible about that and we swore an oath that night…"

"What? What oath? No! No, it's not 'the plasma thing'. I'm over that, really." Kim would have to get the details on what 'oath' her wife was talking about, but that was for some other time. "It's because all I saw was you."

"Me?" Shego looked like a deer caught in front of a pair of headlights.

"… yes."

"All you saw was me? What does that mean?" She watched as her young wife pursed her lips. Kim was steeling herself to face an old and shameful demon.

"Ever since they were born, I've felt as if no babies had ever seen the light of day that were nearly as beautiful as those two. They were these flawless little jewels." She noticed that Shego's eyes had glazed over and that there was a smile playing around the corners of the black glossed lips; the woman was apparently reliving those times. "I still feel that way."

"Me too, Kimmie. So what's the drama?" Shego's brow furrowed at her own choice of words.

"The drama is that every time I would bathe them, or feed then or dress them… I still don't see… any of me in them." There, she had finally said it. "I always see you. Out in the yard that day, with them running and dodging and having a grand old time with the BEBE… all I could see were two little versions of you."

"You're shitting me, right?" Shego's face was a mask. "That's why you've been so…"

"Crazy?"

"I was going to say 'loopy'. You're serious?" She watched Kim nod. "How can you mean that? They're our children… OUR children, genetically and in every other way that counts! Kasy even has your hair!"

"Ssh! You'll wake them!"

"It would serve you right if I did! They'd give you a working over like you'd never believe! Well, what about Kasy's hair?"

"It… has those little green highlights, you know?" Kim felt terrible. "The ones that shine green when the light hits them right."

"I cannot believe what I'm hearing!" Shego lowered her face and covered it with her hands. "I cannot believe it."

"So when I found myself in your body, I… I thought that this would be my chance to be as close to them as you are! We'd have the same powers and the same appearance…!"

"Oh, Princess…" Her face still covered, Shego's shoulders quivered.

"Don't be angry with me! I knew that it wasn't forever, just until the machine got fixed and 'GJ' could switch our minds back!" Shego raised her face and wiped at her eyes; Kim felt panic when she saw that there were tears in the woman's eyes but panic became bafflement when she noticed that Shego was laughing to herself.

"Baby?"

"I swear, the more human and imperfect you show yourself to be, the more I love you!"

"Huh?"

"Come with me, Pumpkin. I want to show you something."

"But what about the movie?"

"Princess, I have the VHS and the DVD! Come on!" Shego stood and started to leave the room, but turned back and lifted Kim bodily from the sofa when the petite woman didn't start moving fast enough.

"Shego! Where are we going?"

"To the den, Kimmie. There's something you should see." True enough, Shego carried her to the den, depositing her into a chair and seating herself at the family computer. From her vantage point Kim could not see what her wife was doing but the pale green woman had turned the machine on and was accessing files. A few minutes passed in silence and Kim was beginning to feel worried again when Shego stood and gestured towards the chair that she had just vacated.

"Please, have a seat." The face was unreadable with its border of flowing black hair, its faint green highlights shining where the light hit them. Kim sat, noticing that Shego had been opening image files from their digitized photo album. She saw pictures from when the twins were born, from several different vacations, from that indescribable time at Sans Woo… dozens of photographs were posted on the screen, ready to be scrolled through or enlarged.

Shego had also made a drastic alteration to the displayed image files.

"Why did you covert them all to grayscale?" Kim turned to her in confusion.

"Take a look at the faces." Kim turned back to comply, staring at the pictures. She looked at them for over a minute, her trained eye and sharp mind searching for the clue that Shego apparently wanted her to find. She saw faced smiling, yelling, mugging for the camera; she saw herself with the twins, Shego with the twins and all of them together.

"Sorry, baby, I still don't see anything!"

"Please take another look." Exasperated, a pale green arm reached past her and enlarged a few particular images. Kim kept looking until her eyes burned and she sighed.

"Shego, I just don't see what…" She was interrupted when the chair was forcibly spun around and a very intense woman stared at her from mere inches away.

"They look just like YOU!"

"Like… me?"

"The faces, the way they move, their sense of humor, even the way that they're built…" Shego thrust out her arm over Kim's shoulder and pointed at the monitor behind her stunned wife. "Do you want me to bring up your own baby pictures, or the pictures taken of you as a kid, 'cause I will!" Kim had no chance to respond as her chair was spun back around. Feelings of vertigo meshed with embarrassed realization when she inspected the images again.

"You, you, you!" The hidden source of the voice didn't stop. "Everything about them screams 'Kim Possible'! Yes, they got the plasma. Yes, they both have my gloriously dead white skin with its algae tints. Yes, Sheki even has my hair!" The angular face softened and she paused to catch her breath. "I'm grateful that whatever there is of me in them is at least visible… " Shego slowly leaned forward and enfolded the petite woman in her long arms from behind.

"Are you so colorblind that you can't see this?"

Kim was beyond speech. There was no denying the fact now that it was all before her in… black and white. She wondered how she could have been so wrong. She did her best to remain composed but her breath caught a little and it was noticed.

"I swear that if you start crying, I'll break your arm."

"I won't cry."

"Compound fracture, immobilized for weeks."

"Really, I'm not going to cry."

"I'd have to bathe you and give you massages to avoid bedsores."

"Bedsores for a broken arm?"

"Mm, hm."

"Can… we pretend later that you broke my arm?"

"Sure, Princess." The pale green nuzzled the back of Kim's neck. "So, what do you want to do now?"

"Drink my hot chocolate and finish the movie."

"Really?"

"Really, really."

"You got it." Just as they had entered, Shego hiked the slender woman up over her shoulders and carried her back to the family room where an exhausted television announcer was giving out the locations of rescue centers that both women knew had long been abandoned in the onslaught of the advancing zombies. They shared the sofa and finished the movie in comfortable silence, broken only once when Kim covered her face and whimpered when Barbara was dragged away by her brother.

The film ended and Shego turned off the electronics. Kim was looking at the blank screen but seeing something else. Shego nudged her.

"How did it feel?"

"How did what feel?"

"Being me for a day."

"I felt strong… powerful. The plasma was one thing… it was like a humming in my bones, but the strength!" Kim actually raised her arms and flexed her toned and not-insubstantial muscles. "You're so strong, physically I mean. That, plus the height… I felt like a giant, or a titan!" Her pink face became very Shego-esque. "I just felt huge!"

"They do have a nice heft to them, don't they?"

"Oh, yeah, they're… ghaa!" Kim scowled and pounded her fists on her knees, frustrated at Shego's sly giggles. As she let the feeling pass, another thought occurred to her. "You… didn't like being in my body much, did you?"

"It was Ok." A shrug. "Definitely different, not what I'm used to. Forget the lack of plasma because there was sure a heap of energy when I needed it."

"Energy?"

"Hell, yeah. My heart never slowed down, I felt as light as air and like, well…" She shrugged again. "Like I could do anything."

"But you didn't like it?"

"What do you want to hear, that I felt like a hideous frelling chud?"

"…"

"Well?"

"Did you?"

"Kimmie! Judas Priest, no! I am exactly three seconds from waking up the girls and telling them about this conversation!"

"… sorry…"

"Look… I think that you're the most beautiful thing on two legs but a large part of that is because it's you in there." Shego reached out and poked Kim on the nose. "Putting me in there isn't right… I didn't belong. Maybe it's why I hate the idea of being cloned." She inhaled deeply and pounded on her chest. "This is me and there can be only one. I don't want to look up and see other 'pseudo-Shegos' running around."

"So my being in your body was wrong?"

"Only if you refused to give it back, yeah." Shego looked closely at her wife's face and wasn't quite convinced that things were copasetic yet. "There's more to it but I'm not a philosopher. I don't have the right words." Tired, she leaned her cheek against her hand and had run her eyes around the room when a memory came to her. "Do you know that silvery dress? The one that you usually wear around the Holidays?"

"Yeah, sure. Why?"

"Well, what would you say if I were to borrow it? You know, wear it now and then?"

"Well, that would be fine… but why would you? It totally clashes with your hair and whatever light you're standing in while you wear it makes your skin look either chalky or… oh." Realization dawned. "I see what you mean."

"Right. What we look like shouldn't ever matter to who we are, but what we've become and what we mean to each other is affected by how we look to them." She caught herself stifling a yawn. "Or some such bullshit. I'm starting to get really sleepy."

"The Mighty Shego becoming the voice of reason… what is the world coming to?" Kim remained seated when her wife stood and flipped the light switch, plunging the room into darkness.

"Aren't you coming to bed?" Emerald eyes looked back curiously.

"No. I'm going to sit here in the darkness and feel stupid for just a little while longer, then I'll be up." This got a blank look, but the pale green woman quietly left the room. Kim noticed that lights were going out in the dining room and kitchen and eventually the entire house was pitch black. She heard footsteps moving back in her direction and the cushions shifted as a weight settled down beside her in the darkness.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going to sit here and feel stupid with you." The tall body was warm as it leaned against her. There was a dry chuckle. "Zo tehl me, Miz Possible… how long haf you had zis desire to make luv wis yourself?"

"What?"

"Don't jerk me around, Kimmie… 'Calling Doctor Freud!' Don't tell me that all day yesterday when the girls were at school was just about you feeling what it was like to experience sex while inside my body." You could hear the smirk. "From the way you chased me around the house I'd almost believe that you were more eager to see what the inside of your own body was like, but from the outside!"

"Well, you know that book you have by David Gerrold?"

"Yeah? So?"

"So? Haven't you ever wanted to… you know… yourself?"

"Ok, I rarely ever say this, but EWWW!"

The End

Author's Note: I hoped that not everyone figured out that it was the mind-swap machine that Team Possible encountered, such as was used in 'Mind Games'. I'd hoped that some of you were guessing Moodulators or maybe even the Attitudinator, or something. This plot bunny-turned-plot buffalo was originally conceived from my love for the 'Farscape' episode 'Out Of Their Minds' but was further prompted and enhanced by a suggestion from the SAME anonymous source that prompted 'A Cookie For Ecclesiastes'. I hope that both you, and he, enjoyed it. Sorry about the wait. Oh, and the book is called 'The Man Who Folded Himself' by David Gerrold. That's right, 'folded'.


End file.
